First you saw those beautiful, bright green asparagus spears at the market, and absolutely had to buy them because… SPRING! Now, you're frantically Googling how to cook asparagus because they turned out soggy and weird the last time you tried to make them. What went wrong, you wonder? What cooking method should you try this time? And how can you make asparagus that actually tastes amazing?
First of all, rest assured: You absolutely made the right move snatching up fresh asparagus while it’s in season—this is one of those seasonal veggie treasures that really shines when the weather gets warmer. "While asparagus is available year-round, it's best bought in season in the springtime," Alexis deBoschnek, a Catskills-based cooking pro and author of To the Last Bite, tells SELF. During asparagus season, you’re more likely to find stalks that are more fresh, flavorful, and tender, as opposed to tough and woody.
Something else to know about the bounty of asparagus you just brought home: Your body will thank you for it. While you're probably buying asparagus mostly because you’re trying to cook up some bomb-tasting in-season veggies, there are also other notable asparagus benefits worth briefly touching on—like the fact that it’s, like, extremely good for you.
Along with micronutrients like vitamins A, C, and K, one cup of raw asparagus contains nearly three grams of fiber, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s packed with a kind of fiber called prebiotics—naturally occurring fibers that help promote the growth of good bacteria in your gut and are linked to good digestive health, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
OK, but enough talk about asparagus nutrition! It's time to get into the nuts and bolts of how to cook asparagus so you can make the most of your haul. Here are all the asparagus cooking tips you need to make the most of this veg—and make it official that spring has sprung in the most delicious way, baby.
How do you pick the best asparagus?
It helps when cooking asparagus to bring home the freshest asparagus in the first place, of course, so look for stalks whose tips are tightly packed and not at all soft or wet. These are good indicators of freshness, deBoschnek says—so you'll not only get the best flavor and texture, you'll also get a longer shelf life before you need to cook it.
By the way, as for whether to select a bundle of thinner or thicker spears, there are a lot of opinions out there—and it’s largely a matter of preference. Slimmer asparagus stalks have a more delicate texture and quicker cooking time, while thicker stalks take longer to cook and have a meatier, heartier texture (and medium-thick spears are somewhere in the middle). You might also find that it depends on the dish you’re making. “The medium is my favorite when I want it to be the star of the show,” Kristina Ramos, chief chef educator at the New York sustainability nonprofit Chefs for Impact, tells SELF. Meanwhile, “A thicker asparagus cut into smaller rounds is great for a salad or pasta-type dish,” Ramos explains, “and thinner spears are great as a side dish or on its own.”
Do you refrigerate asparagus?
Asparagus is perishable, so unless you plan on eating it ASAP after bringing it home, you definitely want to refrigerate it. "After a few days, it can get soft and have an unpleasant odor," Karishma Pradhan, a recipe developer, cooking instructor, and founder of the Home Cooking Collective based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tells SELF.
Take a look at our comprehensive guide to the best and most popular information ebooks and products available today on Detoxing, Colon Cleansing, Weight Loss and Dating and Romance. They are all in one spot, easy to find and compere to make a quick selection for the product that best fits your needs or wants.
So browse through a category and make your preferred selection and come back here to read more choice articles and get a few more helpful tips on ways to help your enhancement.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. “saubiosaubiosuccess.com is a participant in third party affiliate and advertising programs; The Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Awin network, and other affiliate advertising programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees and commissions by advertising and linking to products on other sites and on Amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.”
This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to provide a more personalized experience and to track your whereabouts around our website in compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation. If you decide to to opt-out of any future tracking, a cookie will be setup in your browser to remember this choice for one year.
Accept or Deny
//omg10.com/4/2470417
Manage Cookie Consent
We use anonymous cookies and various 3rd-party services to optimise and to offer you a better, more personalised, browsing experience with advanced accessibility enhancements.
Dismiss
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
